A high-profile trial against businessmen, a former minister, and two dozen accomplices shines a spotlight on illicit cigarette production, widespread smuggling, and the government’s struggle to hold its officials accountable.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor now working as U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, has taken the search for damaging information on Trump’s rivals all the way to Ukraine. Two Soviet-born Americans with colorful histories are his guides.

Mining magnate Frank Timis appears to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars by muscling into a deal for a West African oil and gas deposit and reselling it at a huge profit to one of the world’s largest oil producers.

Eastern European women dreaming of a better life in the Netherlands are being forced into prostitution in The Hague, the seat of international justice. To protect victims’ identities, OCCRP has assigned them pseudonyms throughout this article.